What’s simply amazing is that any documents at all of any possible classification markers ended up at his Florida home without an appropriate paper trail. He should’ve found some federal contractor that has a SCIF and plenty of extra space in the SCIF for storing boxes/documents and then create a project code for Analysts with a security clearance to go through those documents to document what’s been unclassified and what needs to go to other government agencies, like the Archives. These Analysts would report to a Program Manager that also works for this federal contractor and charge their time to this project code, along with the SCIF/storage space/time/processing for the boxes/documents (including separate storage for items cleared as declassified). In addition, they should have some attorney who is on retainer to oversee that the Program Manager did proper supervision of the process. And the Program Manager should try to lawfully get the Archives and other government agencies to pay for the project code costs. Then what Trump would’ve ended up with was shipment of boxes to his home where all of the federal procedures for declassification would’ve been verified and all claims on such documents by the Archives and other agencies would’ve had due process rights respected. And even then he should’ve had his own admin staff/lawyer doing careful supervision to make sure he never had to handle/deal with any box/document that didn’t have the paper trail in place.
If Trump would’ve done this then any potential litigation over all this would’ve started off with the federal contractor & their procedures/processes. Any allegations against Trump would’ve had to first go through that federal contractor who was hired to review the declassifications process of taking boxes/documents out of the White House & EOP -> Trump Home & they’d have an insurmountable firewall protecting Trump from allegations. He initially ran for President on the claim that he couldn’t be bought like so many other candidates because he was rich. Well, if he had any decent management skills then he would’ve been able to handle all this for well less than 1 million USD. Any capable executive knows that the time to start planning your post-transition life when you get out of a Role/Position starts well before you even start that Role/Position. So, he clearly failed on his paperwork management processes from the time of his Presidential Transition team getting underway in late 2016 through his return to private life in early 2021.
Those still supporting Trump have got to see this and realize how he blew this & how he should’ve handled it different. If they don’t understand this then they aren’t doing the Trump campaign any favors because they’re convincing everyone else that he’s just not up to being President again 2025-2029.
My point is that any boxes/documents he identified as President that should be ending up Declassified -> Mara Lago should’ve been identified and processed for separate storage at the White House & once declassified to then be shipped to Mara Lago to some non-SCIF storage room. For anything else he should’ve had his own Program Manager reporting to one of the Assistants to the President whose job was to ensure that they were tracked and processed correctly. And then by the end of his term the number of boxes/documents that still need to be processed would be quite minimal. On January 18th they’d finish cleaning out the Oval Office, but have done most of the clean out at least a week earlier (on this office and all of his other offices) & the President using a separate Office, and on January 19th the only document left there would be a letter to his successor. & this other office & Air Force One & any other office’s contents then getting a final clean-up to this SCIF for declassification processing.
What happened was POOR PLANNING BY TRUMP. And yes he gave a gift to Biden with this. It was like how Bill Clinton’s handling of his Internship program was a gift to his political opponents.